Speaking · Questions
How Do You Select a Keynote Speaker for a Corporate Event?
If you are planning a corporate event, start here: What do you need people to think, say, or do differently when they return to work? If you cannot answer that, you are shopping for entertainment and hoping it turns into impact.
By Galen Bingham, Founder and CEO, Kiln Global®
Applause is not a business outcome
There is nothing wrong with a standing ovation. I enjoy a good one myself. But applause is not a business outcome. Before you sign a speaker agreement, look closely at five things:
- Business fit. Can this speaker connect the message to the priorities your leaders are wrestling with right now?
- Credibility. Has the speaker lived through decisions and consequences like the ones your audience faces, or only talked about them?
- Connection. Does the speaker have the ability to engage the room? Can the speaker field questions with real answers that your audience will deem credible, tested and practical? Or does the speaker simply deliver a polished dialogue?
- Preparation. Will the speaker ask thoughtful questions about your audience, your culture, and what success looks like for the event?
- After the applause. Can people take an idea back to work and use it? Ask what the speaker wants the audience to remember and do.
Decisions and consequences
My keynotes draw on three decades inside major corporations and conversations with senior leaders across industries. I talk about the things executives recognize immediately: pressure, politics, the gap between announcing a strategy and earning commitment, and the decisions that shape what happens next.
For example, TELLING AIN'T LEADING challenges a familiar habit in organizations: leaders announce a direction and mistake the announcement for alignment. The work is to make winning clear, make progress possible, and make the mission personal.
What will be different on Monday?
If you are selecting a speaker for your next leadership meeting or corporate conference, ask for more than a compelling topic. Ask what will be different on Monday. That is the standard worth hiring against.